The agreement’s intended purpose is for Firefly and NASA to collaborate as related to the design and commercial development of Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle, specifically in the areas of technical consultation, engineering services, and concept/design reviews.

Firefly Co-founder & CEO Tom Markusic said, “We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to consult with NASA in solving our launch vehicle development technical challenges. The knowledge-base of their staff is unparalleled, and the access to them afforded through the Space Act Agreements is of significant value to Firefly, and indeed the entire new space community. It’s a great program that will help Firefly to more rapidly mature our vehicle design.”

Firefly Alpha represents a revolution in small satellite launch design. It’s the first vehicle in a scalable family of launchers specifically designed to address the needs of the growing small satellites market. Featuring a methane aerospike engine and the lowest launch cost in its class, it is an all-composite launch vehicle aiming to transform the entire industry.

ABOUT FIREFLY SPACE SYSTEMS

Firefly is a ground-based small satellite launch company located in Austin, TX. The Firefly team consists of highly experienced aerospace engineers that have spent the better part of the past decade working at various New Space companies, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

NASA is working with U.S. industry to develop the capabilities and cutting-edge technologies that will help send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit. To achieve this goal, space travelers will need the resources to survive during long-duration missions to an asteroid, Mars and other outer planets.

Moon Express Inc., of Moffett Field, California, is one of three companies selected for the agency’s new Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (CATALYST) initiative to advance lander capabilities that will enable delivery of payloads to the surface of the moon.

Moon Express will base its operations at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and is using facilities and the automated landing and hazard avoidance technology, or ALHAT field at the Shuttle Landing Facility, to perform its initial lander test development.

“Having Moon Express at Kennedy is yet another cornerstone moment in the transformation of the center to becoming a multi-user spaceport,” said Tom Engler, deputy director of Center Planning and Development. “A facility used by NASA’s Morpheus prototype lander will now be used by a commercial company.”

An artist illustration of the Moon Express MX-1 lunar lander on its mission to the moon. (Credit: Moon Express)

The Moon Express team has been busy since October preparing the test vehicle, called MTV-1X, for a series of tests. The compact vehicle is the size of a large coffee table. The version of this vehicle that will fly in space is a single-stage spacecraft that uses hydrogen peroxide as a primary fuel in a bi-propellant propulsion system bolstered by kerosene for its Earth departure and moon arrival burns. It’s also powered by solar energy, which makes it a very green vehicle.

Activity at the ALHAT field began in December. The team transported the spacecraft out to the ALHAT pad and was able to pressurize the tanks up to 110 percent of maximum expected operating pressure (MEOP). This critical milestone checked out the control systems and cleared the way for future testing at MEOP.

“NASA has been a wonderful partner,” said Bob Richards, Moon Express founder and CEO. “We’re working beside the Morpheus team to build and test our own vehicle at Kennedy.”

Richards said they will use entrepreneurial and innovative ways to become the first private company to reach the moon within two years. The plan is to launch the lunar lander spacecraft, called MX-1, as a secondary payload on a maiden technology demonstration flight in 2016 on a mission to the moon.

“We want to unlock not just the mysteries, but the resources of the moon to benefit all humanity,” Richards said. “We’re preparing to live off the land on the moon, because there’s water there.”

The Moon Express lunar lander could be used to deliver commercial and government payloads to the moon.

This year, the vehicle’s guidance, navigation, control and operation will be checked during initial testing. According to Moon Express president Andy Aldrin, the team will use a crane to hover the vehicle and move it around at the ALHAT field to capture the vehicle milestone process. A series of tethered landing tests will be performed until enough confidence is established in vehicle control to do a free flight.

Early next year, another set of tests will occur. The same test vehicle will be used, with added hydrogen peroxide thrusters, a star tracker and some of the navigation controls that will be used on the actual flight vehicle.

An artist illustration of the Moon Express MX-1 lunar lander on the surface of the moon. (Credit: Moon Express)

Later in the year, more flight-like versions of the test vehicle will be built, called MTV-2 and MTV-3, which will utilize a unique fuel tank called a toroidal tank, which is shaped like a doughnut and will be installed on the vehicle and tested to determine how the fuel behaves as it swirls around in the tank. Aldrin said the advantage of a tank shaped like this is the vehicle can be packaged into a very compact spacecraft that holds a lot of propellant.

If testing goes well, the actual composite fuel tank will be added to the vehicle for further testing at the ALHAT field. At the hangar, the GNC software and some of the flight avionics are being prepared for flight vehicle testing.

“We want to support the exciting commercial innovations that come from partnerships like this one with Moon Express,” Engler said.

“One day we’ll learn how to use water on the moon to make the rocket fuel we need, to make the economics of all the resources on the moon viable,” Richards said.

The Advanced Exploration Systems Division of NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate manages the Lunar CATALYST initiative as part of its Lander Technologies Project. The project is led by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, but includes all of the NASA centers to support the partnership.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — Nuclear Thermal Propulsion technologies are the subject of a new test series at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Researchers there are using an innovative test facility to study the properties of highly promising nuclear fuels — without the risk of radiation exposure associated with handling these potent power sources. The current test series focused on analysis of a variety of fuel elements in a simulated thermal environment kicked off in early October with completion targeted in June 2015.

Michael Houts, NTP manager at the Marshall Center, said the safety factor is good news for scientists and technologists developing the technology — and the advances enabled by the study will yield even better news for flight engineers and NASA mission planners. Nuclear thermal rockets “may be ideal to enable delivery of very large, automated cargo payloads to Mars, paving the way for human explorers,” he said.

The same nuclear thermal propulsion technology, reconfigured for speed rather than mass, then could potentially transport human crews to the Red Planet as well, which would get them there more quickly and efficiently than conventional rockets while reducing astronauts’ solar radiation exposure during the voyage.

In short, Houts said, “Nuclear thermal propulsion could be the ticket to Mars. The results from this study will give us a better idea of whether that is the case by experimentally measuring key factors related to engine performance and lifetime.”

Amy Sivak, an engineer in the Propulsion Research & Technology Branch of the Marshall Center’s Engineering Directorate, keeps an eye on NTREES testing in progress. (Credit:NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given)

Housed in the Marshall Center’s Propulsion Research and Development Laboratory, the test facility used for these innovative studies is dubbed “NTREES,” short for the Nuclear Thermal Rocket Element Environmental Simulator. Licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the facility is certified to test prototypical nuclear rocket fuel elements. These are identical to the fuel elements used in a nuclear thermal rocket, but because the test facility uses non-nuclear heating instead of nuclear fission, the fuel does not become radioactive during the test and can be easily handled and examined once the test is complete.

NTREES safely tests these stand-in, prototypical fuel elements in hot flowing hydrogen at power levels and temperatures comparable to those found in a working nuclear thermal rocket engine. Induction heating is used to mimic the fission process, with pressures reaching 1,000 pounds per square inch and temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

“The cost savings is remarkable,” said Marshall researcher Bill Emrich, who manages the NTREES facility at Marshall. “Whereas it costs tens of millions of dollars to perform full-scale testing of nuclear rocket fuel elements in specially designed nuclear reactors, our research costs just tens of thousands — and no radiation protection is required!”

Houts concurred. “By using this non-nuclear induction heating process for testing, we avoid the environmental, legal and security issues associated with performing full-powered nuclear tests — and advance this research far more quickly than we could do otherwise,” he said. “And when, in time, we conduct actual nuclear testing, we will have very high confidence that those tests will be successful, thanks to these initial, non-nuclear studies.”

The focus on safety extends beyond the laboratory to the launch pad, Houts noted. A chemically powered launch vehicle, such as NASA’s next flagship, the Space Launch System, could safely carry a nuclear-thermal-powered upper stage to orbit. During ascent to orbit, the nuclear system would remain “cold,” with no fission products generated and radiation below significant levels.

Once safe orbit was achieved, the upper stage would deploy, and its nuclear reactor would be activated, heating hydrogen to extremely high temperatures. The hydrogen then would expand through a nozzle, generating thrust.

Such an engine is expected to operate twice as efficiently as a standard chemical engine, Houts said. The Space Shuttle Main Engine, which powered space shuttle missions to Earth orbit for 30 years and is generally considered one of the best, most efficient chemical engines ever built, delivered a specific impulse (ISP) of 450 seconds. A nuclear thermal rocket, in comparison, would deliver an ISP of 900 seconds. That dramatic increase in efficiency could enable reliable delivery of high-mass automated payloads into the deep solar system, or help high-velocity, human-rated vehicles speed to and from Mars and other destinations in as little as half the time required by today’s rockets.

Right now, though, NTREES research is driven by one critical goal: enabling a human mission to Mars. The current round of testing lays the groundwork for large-scale ground tests and eventual full-scale testing in flight.

After that? “Mars, here we come,” Houts said.

Nuclear thermal research at the Marshall Center is part of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Division, managed by the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate and including participation by the U.S. Department of Energy. AES focuses on crew safety and mission operations in deep space, seeks to pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future vehicle development and human missions beyond Earth orbit.

Marshall researchers are partnering on the research with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio; NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi; Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls; Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

For more information about NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, visit:

Engineers just completed hot-fire testing with two 3-D printed rocket injectors. Certain features of the rocket components were designed to increase rocket engine performance. The injector mixed liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen together, which combusted at temperatures over 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, producing more than 20,000 pounds of thrust. (Credit: NASA photo/David Olive)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — NASA has successfully tested the most complex rocket engine parts ever designed by the agency and printed with additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, on a test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

NASA engineers pushed the limits of technology by designing a rocket engine injector –a highly complex part that sends propellant into the engine — with design features that took advantage of 3-D printing. To make the parts, the design was entered into the 3-D printer’s computer. The printer then built each part by layering metal powder and fusing it together with a laser, a process known as selective laser melting.

The additive manufacturing process allowed rocket designers to create an injector with 40 individual spray elements, all printed as a single component rather than manufactured individually. The part was similar in size to injectors that power small rocket engines and similar in design to injectors for large engines, such as the RS-25 engine that will power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the heavy-lift, exploration class rocket under development to take humans beyond Earth orbit and to Mars.

“We wanted to go a step beyond just testing an injector and demonstrate how 3-D printing could revolutionize rocket designs for increased system performance,” said Chris Singer, director of Marshall’s Engineering Directorate. “The parts performed exceptionally well during the tests.”

Using traditional manufacturing methods, 163 individual parts would be made and then assembled. But with 3-D printing technology, only two parts were required, saving time and money and allowing engineers to build parts that enhance rocket engine performance and are less prone to failure.

Two rocket injectors were tested for five seconds each, producing 20,000 pounds of thrust. Designers created complex geometric flow patterns that allowed oxygen and hydrogen to swirl together before combusting at 1,400 pounds per square inch and temperatures up to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. NASA engineers used this opportunity to work with two separate companies — Solid Concepts in Valencia, California, and Directed Manufacturing in Austin, Texas. Each company printed one injector.

“One of our goals is to collaborate with a variety of companies and establish standards for this new manufacturing process,” explained Marshall propulsion engineer Jason Turpin. “We are working with industry to learn how to take advantage of additive manufacturing in every stage of space hardware construction from design to operations in space. We are applying everything we learn about making rocket engine components to the Space Launch System and other space hardware.”

Additive manufacturing not only helped engineers build and test a rocket injector with a unique design, but it also enabled them to test faster and smarter. Using Marshall’s in-house capability to design and produce small 3-D printed parts quickly, the propulsion and materials laboratories can work together to apply quick modifications to the test stand or the rocket component.

“Having an in-house additive manufacturing capability allows us to look at test data, modify parts or the test stand based on the data, implement changes quickly and get back to testing,” said Nicholas Case, a propulsion engineer leading the testing. “This speeds up the whole design, development and testing process and allows us to try innovative designs with less risk and cost to projects.”

Marshall engineers have tested increasingly complex injectors, rocket nozzles and other components with the goal of reducing the manufacturing complexity and the time and cost of building and assembling future engines. Additive manufacturing is a key technology for enhancing rocket designs and enabling missions into deep space.

One of the largest composite cryotanks ever built recently completed a battery of tests at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The tank was lowered into a structural test stand where it was tested with cryogenic hydrogen and structural loads were applied to simulate stresses the tank would experience during launch. (Credit: NASA/David Olive)

HUNSTVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — NASA has completed a complex series of tests on one of the largest composite cryogenic fuel tanks ever manufactured, bringing the aerospace industry much closer to designing, building, and flying lightweight, composite tanks on rockets.

“This is one of NASA’s major technology accomplishments for 2014,” said Michael Gazarik, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Technology. “This is the type of technology that can improve competitiveness for the entire U.S. launch industry, not to mention other industries that want to replace heavy metal components with lightweight composites. These tests, and others we have conducted this year on landing technologies for Mars vehicles, show how technology development is the key to driving exploration.”

The demanding series of tests on the 18-foot (5.5-meter) diameter tank were conducted inside a test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Engineers added structural loads to the tank to replicate the physical stresses launch vehicles experience during flight.

In other tests, the tank successfully maintained fuels at extremely low temperatures and operated at various pressures. Engineers filled the tank with almost 30,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen chilled to -423 degrees Fahrenheit, and repeatedly cycled the pressure between 20 to 53 pounds per square inch — the pressure limit set for the tests.

“This is the culmination of a three-year effort to design and build a large high-performance tank with new materials and new processes and to test it under extreme conditions,” said John Vickers, the project manager for the Composite Cryogenic Technology Demonstration Project, which is one of the key technologies funded by NASA’s Game Changing Development Program. “We are a step closer to demonstrating in flight a technology that could reduce the weight of rocket tanks by 30 percent and cut costs by at least 25 percent.”

The composite rocket fuel tank, which arrived at Marshall on March 26 aboard NASA’s Super Guppy airplane, was built by the Boeing Company near Seattle.

“Never before has a tank of this size been proven to sustain the thermal environment of liquid hydrogen at these pressures,” said Dan Rivera, Boeing program manager for the cryotank project. “Our design is also more structurally efficient then predecessors. This is a significant technology achievement for NASA, Boeing and industry. “We are looking at composite fuel tanks for many aerospace applications.”

The project is part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA’s future missions. Over the next year, the directorate will make significant new investments to address several high-priority challenges in achieving safe and affordable deep space exploration. Next-generation technologies including composite systems have the potential to make rockets, including NASA’s Space Launch System — a deep space rocket being developed at Marshall — more capable and affordable.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Milestone progress is being made in readying NASA’s Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) for launch in 2016, a smallsat designed to test the unique attributes of a high-performance, non-toxic, “green” fuel on orbit.

The GPIM marks the first time the United States will use a spacecraft to test green propellant technology, thereby showcasing the innovation needed to develop a fully domestic, green propellant solution for the next generation of space flight.

GPIM is a Technology Demonstration Mission made possible by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and draws upon a government-industry team of specialists.

“The GPIM project symbolizes what we do best in STMD,” said Timothy Chen, program executive for Technology Demonstration Missions at NASA Headquarters. “We invest in break-through technologies that will fundamentally change the way industry does things. We enable critical technologies such as the green propellant to buy down the risk of development so that NASA, industry and other government agencies can use the technology as close to off-the-shelf as possible. The GPIM project has continued to make significant progress towards proving a mission-capable green alternative to mono propellant hydrazine thrusters.”

The propellant and new propulsion technology offer several advantages for future commercial, university, and government satellites, such as longer mission durations, additional maneuverability, increased payload space, and simplified launch processing.

Alternative fuel

Non-toxic “green” propellant, actually peach-colored, is less harmful to the environment, increases fuel efficiency, and diminishes operational hazards. This class of propellant can replace highly toxic hydrazine and complex bi-propellant systems that are widely used today. (Credit: Aerojet Rocketdyne)

The propellant, a Hydroxyl Ammonium Nitrate fuel/oxidizer mix, also is known as AF-M315E. This fuel may replace the highly toxic hydrazine and complex bi-propellant systems in-use today.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado is the prime contractor for GPIM and is leading the demonstration of the alternative fuel for future space vehicles.

“Green fuel is not only great in terms of handling and safety, it is also a very high-performance rocket fuel,” said Chris McLean, principal investigator for GPIM at Ball Aerospace. “It opens the mission trade space for expanded science operations and/or increased durations.”

The green propulsion system will fly aboard the tried-and-true Ball Configurable Platform 100 spacecraft bus – a cost-saving approach, McLean added, since this is the third build of this bus. The AF-M315E fuel for GPIM was developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The propellant offers nearly 50 percent higher performance for a given propellant tank volume compared to a conventional hydrazine system.

Newton nudging

McLean noted that GPIM will use a catalyst technology, pioneered by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Redmond, Washington, also a key partner in the spacecraft mission. “Once the green fuel gets into that catalyst it decomposes exothermically and evolves into gaseous products that come out the engine nozzle…and that’s how we get thrust,” he explained.

The fabrication and testing of GPIM thrusters is progressing within a specially built test lab at Aerojet Rocketedyne’s Redmond site. Making use of a new vacuum chamber and instrumentation system, work is underway there to ready the 22-newton and 1-newton thrusters.

The 22-newton thruster will fire simultaneously along with four smaller 1 newton thrusters aboard the GPIM satellite to make orbit changes, as well as perform pointing and hold tests during the early months of an expected year-long flight.

Long-life catalyst

“For the last several years our research and development group that’s dedicated to this technology has made several, quite astounding leaps forward,” said Jonathan Overly, senior project engineer on the GPIM program at Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Overly said the company’s work has helped to make the GPIM mission possible in many ways, particularly in increasing the life and the performance capability of the thrusters.

“Creating a long-life catalyst was probably the biggest improvement,” Overly observed. “The thrusters have a lot of capability. It has been a very challenging development process, yet very rewarding. The testing is just going phenomenally and I couldn’t be happier,” he added.

GPIM thrusters and the complete propellant system will be delivered to Ball Aerospace and then integrated into the spacecraft, Overly explained. “Because this is an infusion mission, the intent is to demonstrate the full capability of the thrusters…so they can be better infused into a variety of space missions. The applications for this propellant are widespread.”

GPIM team

The GPIM is among several other payloads to be lofted in 2016 by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster.

GPIM team co-investigators also include NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards Air Force Base, with additional mission support from the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The GPIM effort is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

“One of the things that I love about technology demonstration missions is that for a relatively low dollar amount we are capable of doing significant technology advancements,” said McLean of Ball Aerospace. “Everybody on the program is contributing to the success of GPIM.”

A completed dome on a holding fixture at the Plug Weld Tool (PWT). (Credit: NASA/MAF)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — NASA continues to make progress toward its next giant leap to send humans farther into the solar system than ever before, including to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

This week, the core stage for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) has passed its Critical Design Review — a major milestone for the program which proves the first new design for America’s next great rocket is mature enough for production.

Representatives from various NASA centers and The Boeing Company — prime contractor for the core stage, including its avionics — met June 30 and July 1 for the Critical Design Review board at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. More than 3,000 core stage artifacts were reviewed by 11 individual technical discipline teams. Marshall manages the SLS Program for the agency.

A barrel is lifted off the Vertical Weld Center (VWC) at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. (Credit: NASA/MAF)

“The SLS program team completed the core stage critical design review ahead of schedule and continues to make excellent progress towards delivering the rocket to the launch pad,” said SLS Program Manager Todd May. “Our entire prime contractor and government team has been working full-steam on this program since its inception.”

Components of the core stage test article and actual flight hardware manufacturing is underway at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, while development and integration of flight computers and software continues at Marshall.

“Completing the CDR is a huge accomplishment, as this is the first time a stage of a major NASA launch vehicle has passed a critical design review since the 1970s,” said Tony Lavoie, manager of the Stages Office at Marshall. “In just 18 months since the Preliminary Design Review, we are ready to go forward from design to qualification production of flight hardware.”

Program officials also completed modification of the remaining major SLS contract with Boeing Aerospace of Huntsville, Alabama, a division of Boeing Company of St. Louis. Under the contract, Boeing will develop the 200-foot core stage, including the avionics system for SLS. The core stage will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the RS-25 engines at the base of the core stage. Boeing has also been tasked to study the Exploration Upper Stage, which will be needed for the 130-metric-ton version of SLS that will further expand mission range and payload capabilities.

Three prime contractors support SLS in addition to Boeing: ATK of Brigham City, Utah; Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California; and Teledyne Brown Engineering of Huntsville, Alabama.

The first configuration of the SLS launch vehicle will have a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. As the SLS is evolved, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built and provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons) to enable missions even farther into our solar system.

Hours after the June 28, 2014, test of NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator over the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range, the saucer-shaped test vehicle is lifted aboard the Kahana recovery vessel. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA representatives participated in a media teleconference this morning to discuss the June 28, 2014 near-space test flight of the agency’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), which occurred off the coast of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.

A high-altitude balloon launch occurred at 8:45 a.m. HST (11:45 a.m. PDT/2:45 p.m. EDT) from the Hawaiian island facility. At 11:05 a.m. HST (2:05 p.m. PDT/5:05 p.m. EDT), the LDSD test vehicle dropped away from the balloon as planned and began powered flight. The balloon and test vehicle were about 120,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean at the time of the drop. The vehicle splashed down in the ocean at approximately 11:35 a.m. HST (2:35 p.m. PDT/5:35 p.m. EDT), after the engineering test flight concluded. The test vehicle hardware, black box data recorder and parachute were all recovered later in the day.

“We are thrilled about yesterday’s test,” said Mark Adler, project manager for LDSD at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “The test vehicle worked beautifully, and we met all of our flight objectives. We have recovered all the vehicle hardware and data recorders and will be able to apply all of the lessons learned from this information to our future flights.”

This test was the first of three planned for the LDSD project, developed to evaluate new landing technologies for future Mars missions. While this initial test was designed to determine the flying ability of the vehicle, it also deployed two new landing technologies as a bonus. Those landing technologies will be officially tested in the next two flights, involving clones of the saucer-shaped vehicle.

“Because our vehicle flew so well, we had the chance to earn ‘extra credit’ points with the Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator [SIAD],” said Ian Clark, principal investigator for LDSD at JPL. “All indications are that the SIAD deployed flawlessly, and because of that, we got the opportunity to test the second technology, the enormous supersonic parachute, which is almost a year ahead of schedule.”

The Supersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (SIAD) is a large, doughnut-shaped first deceleration technology that deployed during the flight. The second is an enormous parachute (the Supersonic Disk Sail Parachute). Imagery downlinked in real-time from the test vehicle indicates that the parachute did not deploy as expected, and the team is still analyzing data on the parachute so that lessons learned can be applied for the next test flights, scheduled for early next year.

In order to get larger payloads to Mars, and to pave the way for future human explorers, cutting-edge technologies like LDSD are critical. Among other applications, this new space technology will enable delivery of the supplies and materials needed for long-duration missions to the Red Planet.

“This entire effort was just fantastic work by the whole team and is a proud moment for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate,” said Dorothy Rasco, deputy associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This flight reminds us why NASA takes on hard technical problems, and why we test – to learn and build the tools we will need for the future of space exploration. Technology drives exploration, and yesterday’s flight is a perfect example of the type of technologies we are developing to explore our solar system.”

A trio of science payloads have completed their missions on the International Space Station and returned to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where they’ll be turned over to the scientists who designed them.

The BRIC-18, Biotube-MICRo and APEX-02-2 investigations were created to answer a variety of biological questions critical to future long duration spaceflight, from the prevention and treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections to several mysterious aspects of plant growth.

The payloads were launched to the station by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft, which lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 18. SpaceX-3 was the third flight to deliver cargo to the orbiting complex under the company’s Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.

Dragon berthed to the space station April 20. Over the next few days, the station’s crew members carefully removed the science payloads from the capsule-shaped spacecraft and brought them aboard for the experiments to begin.

The Biological Research In Canisters experiments, BRIC-18-1 and BRIC-18-2, are seen in the Space Station Processing Facility prior to flight. (Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett)

Throughout the flight, payload development teams in the International Space Station Ground Processing and Research Project Office at Kennedy tracked the studies’ progress from a small control room in the Space Station Processing Facility called the Experiment Monitoring Area (EMA). From their EMA consoles, members of each payload team could answer questions or offer any necessary guidance while the astronauts were manipulating the payload.

Biotube-Magnetophoretically Induced Curvature in Roots, or Biotube-MICRo, was developed by the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, to study how magnetic fields and gravity affect the direction of plant growth. The payload contained three magnetic field chambers carrying small cassettes holding seeds of the fast-growing Brassica rapa plant.

The Biotube-MICRo payload was placed in an EXPRESS Rack, a standardized unit for storing and supporting experiments on the space station. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, then sent the command to apply power to the rack, which in turn powered the experiment.

“At that time, we sent the command from the ground here at Kennedy to begin the experiment,” explained Ralph Fritsche, the study’s payload manager.

An automated process injected water into the cassettes to start the seeds growing. After 18 hours, video from the station showed a sufficient amount of plant and root growth. A fixative then was injected into the cassettes that ended the experiment.

Biological Research in Canisters-18, or BRIC-18, included two separate studies housed in a total of four unpowered bread-box-sized containers holding petri dishes. BRIC-18-1 was developed by the University of Florida in Gainesville to capture the effects of spaceflight on two common bacteria, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus epidermidis. BRIC-18-2, designed by the Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., looked at how plants deal with the stresses of life in space, from vibrations of launch to lack of gravity.

The canisters in the BRIC-18-1 study grew for five days, then moved into the station’s minus eighty-degree freezer. The temperatures in the cold-storage unit halted biological processes and preserved the bacteria.

Half of the Arabidopsis thaliana plant seedlings in BRIC-18-2 grew for seven days, then the crew injected the samples with a fixative. The other half of the seedlings were permitted to grow for an additional week before the fixative was applied.

“Everything went exactly as planned,” said BRIC-18’s payload manager, David Flowers.

Temperature loggers installed on the payload kept track of the temperatures samples faced during the course of the experiments. This information will allow the payload team to replicate these conditions during upcoming control experiments that will be conducted in a Kennedy laboratory.

Spaceflight does occasionally present challenges. The payload and science teams for the Advanced Plant Experiments investigation, APEX-02-2, faced such an unexpected obstacle.

APEX-02-2 was developed by the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs; Duke University School of Medicine; and the University of British Columbia, Canada. The experiment contained 10 plates colonized with yeast. The experiment originally was intended to track changes in the samples’ gene expression in the microgravity environment, as well as the radiation effects they encountered in flight.

But the plate reader required to capture the gene expression malfunctioned after only five hours of data were recorded, explained payload manager Jose Camacho. The teams met quickly to devise a workaround to complete as much of the study as possible.

“We coordinated a plan to get all the plates moved into the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus,” Camacho said. “This allowed the radiation assessment portion of the experiment to continue.”

“All the teams did a great job responding to the problem and quickly putting a workaround in place. We’re still expecting great science,” Camacho added.

All three payloads returned to Earth when Dragon splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on May 18 after nearly a month at the space station. After a brief stop at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the APEX-02-2, Biotube-MICRo and BRIC-18 payloads arrived at Kennedy on May 22.

Now safely back where their journey began, the specimens in each study will be removed from the payload hardware and handed over to their respective science teams for analysis.

In a policy statement issued today, the White House took issue with two objectives near and dear to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): crippling NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and boosting its Space Launch System (SLS).

“The Administration appreciates the Committee’s support for the Commercial Crew program, but has concerns about language that would seek to apply accounting requirements unsuitable for a firm, fixed-price acquisition, likely increasing the program’s cost and potentially delaying its schedule,” the Administration said in the statement, which covers the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2015.

Shelby is the main driver behind a provision in the spending bill that would require contractors to provide certified cost and pricing data for the program. He says it is a matter of accountability and transparency.

Commercial space advocates — including the Space Access Society and Space Frontier Foundation — oppose the provision, saying it would drive up costs significantly. The Space Access Society sees the move as a way of bringing the program back under the control of NASA bureaucrats.

The White House also opposes another provision in the spending bill that would direct NASA to use the heavy-lift SLS as the baseline rocket for a future robotic mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. The giant rocket is being developed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, which is in Shelby’s home state of Alabama.

“The Administration appreciates the Committee’s support for science missions, but is concerned about prematurely specifying elements of future missions while the missions are in a very early state of development,” the policy statement reads. “In particular, the Administration believes…that it is premature to designate the Space Launch System as the launch vehicle for a Europa mission before the costs and benefits of such a choice are understood.”

The Senate provides no specific FY 2015 funding for a mission to Europe, which is believed to have a substantial ocean beneath its frozen surface. The House spending measure includes $100 million to support work on the program.

In a similar vein, the Administration says it is concerned “the Committee’s proposed approach to a follow-on Landsat mission is not feasible within the bill’s proposed cost cap of $650 million.”

The Obama Administration also is concerned about funding for the Space Technology program. The Administration requested $705.5 million, while the Senate measure would fund the program at $580.2 million. The House measure would provide $620 million.

“The Administration is concerned that the bill does not provide the FY 2015 Budget request for the Space Technology program,” the statement reads. “Space Technology is needed to reduce the cost and increase the long-term capability of NASA, other Government, and commercial space activities.”

The policy statement doesn’t provide any guidance on what the White House would consider an acceptable level of funding for the program below the amount that was requested.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, recently began the first in a series of tests of one of the largest composite cryotanks ever built. The 18-foot-diameter (5.5-meter) cylinder-shaped tank was lowered into a structural test stand at the Marshall Center.

To check tank and test stand operations, the first tests are being conducted at ambient temperature with gaseous nitrogen. Future tests this summer will be with liquid hydrogen cooled to super cold, or cryogenic, temperatures. The orange ends of the tank are made of metal and attach to the test stand so that structural loads can be applied similarly to those the tank would experience during a rocket launch.

The composite cryotank is part of NASA’s Game Changing Development Program and Space Technology Mission Directorate, which are innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA’s future missions. NASA focused on this technology because composite tanks promise a 30-percent weight reduction and a 25-percent cost savings over the best metal tanks used today.

The tank was manufactured with new materials and processes at the Boeing Developmental Center in Tukwila, Washington.

using neutrinos to perform measurements for the icy moons of the outer planets; and,

a concept to safely capture a tumbling asteroid, space debris, and other applications.

Seedling investments may provide the breakthrough technologies needed to support NASA’s plans for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, into deep space and to Mars, as outlined in the Evolvable Mars Campaign.

“The latest NIAC selections include a number of exciting concepts for planetary exploration,” said Michael Gazarik, NASA’s associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. “We are working with innovators around the nation to transform the future of aerospace, while also focusing our investments on concepts to address challenges of current interests both in space and here on Earth.”

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate chose this year’s Phase I proposals based on their potential to transform future aerospace missions by enabling either entirely new missions or breakthroughs in future aerospace capabilities that could accelerate progress toward NASA’s goals.

NIAC Phase I awards are approximately $100,000, providing awardees the funding needed to conduct a nine-month initial definition and analysis study of their concepts. If the basic feasibility studies are successful, proposers can apply for Phase II awards, which provide up to $500,000 for two more years of concept development.

“The 2014 NIAC Phase I candidates were outstanding, which made final selections decisions particularly difficult,” said NIAC Program Executive Jay Falker. “So we considered various kinds of potential benefit and risk, and developed this portfolio to really push boundaries and explore new approaches, which is what makes NIAC unique.”

NASA solicits visionary, long-term concepts for technological maturation based on their potential value to future agency space missions and operational needs. The projects are chosen through a peer-review process that evaluates their potential, technical approach, and benefits for study in a timely manner. All concepts are very early in the development cycle, years from implementation.

NASA’s early investments and partnerships with creative scientists, engineers, and citizen inventors from across the nation will provide technological dividends and help maintain America’s leadership in the global technology economy.

NIAC is part of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing, and flying hardware for use in NASA’s future missions. Over the next 18 months, the directorate will make significant new investments to address several high-priority challenges in achieving safe and affordable deep-space exploration. These focused technology thrust areas are tightly aligned with NASA’s Space Technology Roadmaps, the Space Technology Investment Plan, and National Research Council recommendations.

Since 2012, the Dynetics-led team has executed on NASA’s SLS ABEDRR contract to reduce risks for advanced boosters that could help meet SLS’ future capability needs. The team has successfully manufactured its first two full-scale, 18-foot diameter cryogenic tank barrels.

“Our team took the flight-weight tank barrels all the way from concept design to successful manufacturing in less than 10 months, demonstrating that Dynetics’ affordable launch vehicle structures approach is credible,” said Kim Doering, Dynetics’ Space Division Manager.

The team also made recent progress in its effort to create more affordable propulsion systems. In less than four months after the contract award, the team, working closely with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, successfully resurrected the world’s most powerful rocket engine ever flown — the F-1 that powered the Saturn V rocket — and test fired its 30,000 pounds-force gas generator in Huntsville, Ala. Modern instruments on the test stand measured performance properties to allow engineers a starting point for creating a new generation of affordable advanced booster propulsion systems.

“Because of these tests, the team successfully completed design and fabrication of a new full-scale gas generator injector using additive manufacturing that will be hot fired at Marshall Space Flight Center in late 2014,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne Vice President for Advanced Space & Launch Systems, Julie Van Kleeck. “Additionally, other components have been produced, demonstrating affordable casting techniques for large, complicated engine components.”

Geared at providing more value for government and commercial customers, the AR and Dynetics partnership already has resulted in significant benefits to launch systems customers.

“We are excited about this expansion of our already productive partnership with Aerojet Rocketdyne. Its rich history, innovative engineering team and unmatched experience in propulsion systems development make this a natural pairing between our two firms,” said President of Dynetics, David King.

President of Aerojet Rocketdyne, Warren M. Boley, Jr., said, “By expanding this partnership with Dynetics in Huntsville, the team can deliver innovation combined with affordability to customers using state-of-the-art design, development and manufacturing capabilities.”

About Aerojet Rocketdyne

Aerojet Rocketdyne is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader providing propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, tactical systems and armaments areas, in support of domestic and international markets. GenCorp is a diversified company that provides innovative solutions that create value for its customers in the aerospace and defense, and real estate markets. Additional information about Aerojet Rocketdyne and GenCorp can be obtained by visiting the companies’ websites at www.Rocket.com and www.GenCorp.com.

About Dynetics

Dynetics delivers solutions to government and commercial customers in the areas of intelligence, missiles, aviation, cyber and space. Based in Huntsville, Ala., with offices throughout the United States, Dynetics is a mid-tier company that provides complete lifecycle analysis, engineering and hardware solutions to support customer missions. Dynetics has more than 360,000 square feet of advanced design, analysis, test and manufacturing facilities with full lifecycle capabilities. The company, which has been providing products and services to the government and other customers since 1974, develops products using the quality standards AS9100C, ISO 9001:2008 and SEI CMMI® Level 3. For more information visit www.dynetics.com.

The scale model of the Dream Chaser is readied for wind tunnel testing at high speeds that simulate the conditions it will encounter during its flight through the atmosphere returning from space. (Credit: NASA/David C. Bowen)

SPARKS, Nev., May 19, 2014 – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces the successful completion of the latest milestone in its NASA Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement. NASA awarded SNC full value of $20 million for the passage of CCiCap Milestone 8, Wind Tunnel Testing. To date, SNC has received over 80 percent of the total award value under the CCiCap agreement and is on track to complete the program later this year.

The purpose of Milestone 8 was to continue to advance the overall design of the Dream Chaser® orbital spacecraft by analyzing the forces and flight dynamic characteristics that the vehicle will experience during orbital ascent and re-entry. The completion of this milestone significantly advances the path to orbital flight of the Dream Chaser spacecraft and the Dream Chaser Atlas V integrated launch system. Several Dream Chaser scale model spacecraft were subjected to multiple different wind tunnel tests in various configurations, including the integrated Dream Chaser attached to the United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle. In addition to the baseline milestone criteria, SNC fully self-funded an additional wind tunnel test that will accelerate the Dream Chaser development schedule and path to completion of the Critical Design Review.

“The aerodynamic data collected during these tests has further proven and validated Dream Chaser’s integrated spacecraft and launch vehicle system design. It also has shown that Dream Chaser expected performance is greater than initially predicted,” said Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC’s Space Systems. “Our program continues to fully complete each of our CCiCap agreement milestones assisted through our strong collaboration efforts with our integrated ‘Dream Team’ of industry, university and government strategic partners. We are on schedule to launch our first orbital flight in November of 2016, which will mark the beginning of the restoration of U.S. crew capability to low-Earth orbit.”

The wind tunnel tests for this milestone were completed at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, CALSPAN Transonic Wind Tunnel in New York, and at NASA’s Langley Research Center Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel in Hampton, Virginia. SNC has a long standing relationship with Langley dating to 2004, the beginning of its development for the Dream Chaser, a derivative of NASA’s HL-20 lifting body vehicle. Langley also houses the full motion-based flight simulator, which operates using Dream Chaser flight software and has been used to train future Dream Chaser pilots and NASA astronauts. In addition to these locations, previous wind tunnel testing also occurred at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and at Texas A&M University.

SNC is working with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to develop a safe, innovative, modern, flexible and highly-capable crew transportation system for the 21st Century. Dream Chaser provides the only reusable, human-rated lifting-body spacecraft with a commercial runway landing capability, anywhere in the world, and is on the forefront of the commercial human spaceflight industry, offering safe, reliable and cost-effective crew and critical cargo transportation to low-Earth orbit. Dream Chaser is a multi-mission capable spacecraft that has the ability to work as an independent science platform, or as a logistics vehicle to retrieve, repair, replace, assemble or deploy items in space.

Program Implementation Plan Review. This is an initial meeting to describe the plan for implementing the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Program, to include management planning for achieving CDR; Design, Development, Testing, and Evaluation activities; risk management to include mitigation plans, and certification activities planned during the CCiCap Base Period.

Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #1. The purpose of the Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #1 is to demonstrate that the systems safety analysis of the Dream Chaser Space System (DCSS) has been advanced to a preliminary maturity level, incorporating changes resulting from the Preliminary Design Review, The DCSS consists of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, launch vehicle, ground systems and mission systems.

January 2013

Complete

$20 Million

4A.

Engineering Test Article Flight Testing. At least one free flight of the Engineering Test Article to characterize the aerodynamics and controllability of the Dream Chaser Orbital Vehicle outer mold line configuration during the subsonic approach and landing phase.

Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2. The purpose of the Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2 is to demonstrate that the systems safety analysis of the Dream Chaser Space System.

October 2013

Complete

$20 Million

7.

Certification Plan Review. The Certification Plan Review defines the top level strategy for certification of the DCSS that meets the objectives for the ISS Design Reference Mission described in CCT-DRM-1110 Rev Basic. SNC shall conduct a review of the verification and validation activities planned for the Dream Chaser Space System (Dream Chaser spacecraft, Atlas launch vehicle, Ground and Mission Systems).

November 2013

Complete

$25 Million

8.

Wind Tunnel Testing. The purpose of this testing is to reduce risk on both the DC vehicle and the DC/Atlas stack by maturing the DC and DCiAtias aerodynamic databases, providing improved fidelity in Reynolds number effects and control surface interactions, and will help determine pre-CDR required updates to the OML or control surface geometry if required.

February 2014

Complete

$20 Million

10A.

Critical Design Review Incremental Design Review #1. This is the first of a series of reviews that support the Dream Chaser Space System ICDR.

October 2013

Complete

$5 Million

TOTAL TO DATE
(OUT OF $227.5 Million):

$184.5Million

4B.

Engineering Test Article Flight Testing. The purpose of these additional free flight test(s) is to reduce risk due to aerodynamic uncertainties in the subsonic approach and landing phase of flight and to mature the Dream Chaser aerodynamic database. A minimum of one and up to five additional Engineering Test Article free flight test(s) will be completed to characterize the aerodynamics and controllability of the Dream Chaser Orbital Vehicle outer mold line configuration during the subsonic approach and landing phase.

April 2013

Pending 3Q 2014

$8 Million

9.

Risk Reduction and TRL Advancement Testing. The purpose of these tests is to significantly mature all Dream Chaser systems to or beyond a CDR level.

May 2014

Pending 2Q 2014

$17 Million

9A.

Main Propulsion and RCS Risk Reduction and TRL Advancement Testing. The purpose of these tests is to significantly mature the Dream Chaser Main Propulsion System and Reaction Control System to or beyond a CDR level. Risk reduction and Technology Readiness Level improvement tests will be completed for these systems.

May 2014

Pending 2Q 2014

$8
Million

15A.

Reaction Control System Testing — Incremental Test No. 1. The purpose of the test on this pre-qualification unit is to support eventual qualification/certification by testing the thruster in flight-like environments.

Four RS-25 engines, like the one pictured undergoing a hot-fire test, will power the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) — NASA’s new heavy-lift launch vehicle. (Credit: NASA)

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. (NASA PR) — The RS-25 engine that will power NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), off the launch pad and on journeys to an asteroid and Mars is getting ready for the test stand. And it is packing a big punch.

Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., are now focusing their attention on preparing the RS-25 engine after completing testing of the J-2X engine April 10. Four RS-25 engines, previously known as space shuttle main engines, will muscle the core stage of SLS for each of its missions. Towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, the core stage will store cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicle’s RS-25s.

Modifications to the engines, like higher thrust levels, were needed on the proven workhorse to prepare them for the SLS. To accommodate a higher thrust level, the number of engines was increased from three, used during the shuttle era, to four. The power level also was increased for each engine.

Engines on the shuttle ran at 491,000 pounds vacuum thrust (104.5-percent of rated power level). After analyzing temperature and other factors on the engine, the power level was increased for SLS to 512,000 pounds vacuum thrust (109 percent of rated power level).

Modifications also have been made to the A-1 test stand at Stennis to prepare for the RS-25’s first hot-fire test.

The completed J-2X test series provided many benefits as RS-25 enters the stand.

Watch a video of the J-2X engine test:

“From the start, testing of the J-2X engine progressed at an incredible pace and provided invaluable data,” said Gary Benton, J-2X and RS-25 test project manager at Stennis. “We began J-2X powerpack testing for the engine in late 2007 and conducted a wide range of full-engine developmental tests since then. We have collected data on engine and test stand capabilities and performance that will benefit the nation’s space program for years to come.”

A number of J-2X test objectives offer benefits to the upcoming battery of RS-25 tests, including defining the performance, control and data characteristics of the test stand, and new processes used to record and interpret engine performance data.

Many of the modifications made on the A-1 test stand are based on improvements made throughout J-2X testing. For example, RS-25 thrust measurement, data collection, engine control system architecture and control of propellant conditions at the engine inlet all will be based on J-2X test experience.

Another strength the RS-25 test team will inherit is experience. The test crew and data review team have continually improved the efficiency of test operations leading up to RS-25 testing.

“We’re gearing up for what we trust will be a successful and essential RS-25 test series — technically as well as on cost and schedule — and our J-2X experience directly contributes to this need,” said Tom Byrd, deputy manager in the SLS Liquid Engines Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The SLS Program is managed at the Marshall Center. “The manufacturing and testing we just completed will continue to be beneficial to the RS-25, the SLS Program and the agency’s initiatives.”

As future missions are defined for the 130-metric-ton vehicle — the largest configuration planned — NASA will consider various engine options that are the best value and design.